Make It Compatible

[dmacburry2003]

I don't know if I asked this before, but is there any way I can hack Windows 98SE to be Windows XP?

Ex: an app that can only be installed on Win 2K and + is annoying. I'm sure Windows 98 can handle them so I don't know why there are restrictions. I would like to run one of these XP only apps on Win 98SE.

PS: There is an app in the system folder called Make Compatible or something that has options to make an app compatible (such as a checkbox to lie about Windows version number) but it does not seem to work for this...

Thanx!

[PetiteFlower]

Windows is only set up to make things backwards compatible, not forwards. After all even Bill Gates isn't psychic :)

WinXp is like a million times better at making old programs run on it then previous versions, but even then it's not great, I have some old games from 98 that won't run well on my new machine. It's a shame too they were good games!

Anyway your best bet I would think is to appeal to the creators of the apps you want to run and ask them if they can make a Win98 compatible version. Depending on what it is and how big the company is, you might be able to get them to do it so they can secure a happy customer.

[dmacburry2003]

I'm talking like Microsoft itself.
I'm talking like MusicMatch.
I'm talking like Napster.
I'm talking like iTunes.


I'm talking like too much :wink:

[Jacob]

Usually when a company designes their install to prevent you from using it on an OS, there's a real reason such as:

1. They need to use APIs that aren't available on those operating systems (this is often the case when the requirement is Win2K or up since win9x systems have different APIs).
2. They don't feel they have the resources to test on those platforms - so they can't support them.

It could be a lot of things.

It sucks, but what PetiteFlower suggested is probably your best option.

[dmacburry2003]

Thanks guys (or gals) :D

[PetiteFlower]

I used Music Match and Napster when I had a win98 computer, I'm sure there are still old versions of them out there that work on the older OS. If you can't get the old versions off the web site I bet you can email support and ask them to send you an older version that will work on your OS.

I have less then no clue about Itunes, don't want to touch it :)

I thought you were talking about new software though, that wasn't introduced until XP was the standard. Older software you can just use the older versions, it's pretty rare that a company will totally discontinue support/functionality for older OS versions until they are TOTALLY obsolete(like Windows 3.1).